Journey
by animefreak-shinobi
Summary: The rookie nine and Gai's team are all 13. One day, Tsunade tells them that all shinobi live on a separate island, which is part of Earth! The chuunin travel to the United States for a Brank mission. NaruHina and other pairings.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Naruto burst into the Hokage's office and said loudly in his familiar voice, "Tsunade-obachan! What do you need me for?"

Tsunade glared at Naruto, and her anger dissipated from Naruto's anxious, innocent face. She sighed and said, "I need to meet the rookie nine as well as Gai's team to talk to you guys. You just came first."

Naruto sat down in a chair and waited for about a minute until the rest of Team 7 came in, along with Kakashi. Teams 8 and 9 arrived, and lastly came Gai's team. Tsunade addressed them all and said, "All right. I called for you all for a mission that will involve all of you."

All of the shinobi were surprised at the fact that this mission required 12 chuunin. Immediately, they began asking questions about the mission, yet Tsunade held up her hand, silencing all of them. She then said, "I am going to tell you 12 some information that is only allowed to be known to people of the Jounin class. You all have been raised thinking that the whole world is split into the five shinobi countries along with other, smaller countries. However, this is not true. In fact, the world that we live in is actually a small island, with much larger land masses called continents."

She pulled out a map and pointed out the seven different continents: North America, South America, Africa, etc. Naruto asked a good question, "Where are we on this map?"

Tsunade smiled and pointed to the middle of a blue section of the map that was labeled "Atlantic Ocean". Sakura pointed out, "Doesn't blue mean water? How can we live in an ocean?"

Tsunade sighed and said, "This is part of the secret I am about to tell you. Most ninja, not just Konoha shinobi, are taught that we live in a world full of shinobi. However, everywhere on this map, there are no shinobi existing."

This comment caused the 12 young ninjas to be very surprised, with most of the ninja talking to each other loudly, with Kiba and Naruto yelling. Even Shino and Sasuke were talking to the others, just as confused as they were.

Tsunade allowed them to quiet down, and then continued. "My point is that we live on an island in the Atlantic Ocean." She took a pen and drew the island about the size of Japan in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. "The reason of why our island is not on this map is because we are hiding our location from the rest of the world, so all of the billions of people everywhere else do not know that ninja exist. We use a very powerful genjutsu that is cast over the whole island so that others will not discover it. The jutsu kills anyone who gets too close to the island. In addition, any technology from the outside world will become messed up, such as radar and other technology. People call this the Bermuda Triangle, since they have no explanation for the bizarre occurrences that result from this jutsu.

"All of the shinobi countries signed an international treaty very long ago in order to refrain from telling any shinobi that cannot be deeply trusted. This is because one time, some ninja got off of the island and told of ninjas and their jutsus to others. The people who learned of ninja were from the country Japan. This occurred hundreds of years ago. The reason of why we do not tell outsiders about ninja is because they would constantly be wanting our services as ninja, since outsiders are not capable of being ninja. Wars probably would be fought over hiring us ninja, so we chose not to tell.

"However, greedy ninja saw this in another way and decided that they could sell their services and become mercenaries to earn wealth. The shinobi countries allied together to assassinate these missing-nin, yet the Japanese still knew of the ninja. The countries agreed that killing the people of Japan would cause far too much attention, since almost all of Japan knew of the ninja, so the countries retreated and hoped for the best. We were lucky, and the ninja who came to the outside world became myths and legends.

"We always have ninja stationed around the outside world; each village is permitted to station as many ninja in the outside world as they like, except that these ninja may never fight each other or reveal the existence of ninja. These ninja are also ordered to never use any jutsu or appear abnormal in front of outsiders, such as displaying ninja-like speed, except in a life-threatening situation. The purpose of these stationed ninja is to monitor the outsiders and to make sure that the myths of Japan are never turned into fact. They are to keep our identities secret. In addition, they are to stay alert for any missing-nin who come here, since any shinobi can come into and leave the island. So far, no missing-nin have been to the outside world because we have patrols who watch over the borders of the island to make sure that no one gets off the island.

"I am telling you all this because this will involve all of you for a Class-A mission." With this, the 12 shinobi looked up, some worried, some surprised, and some excited. Tsunade continued, "Because the Sound Village was just recently founded, they have not agreed to the international treaty that prevents contact with the outside world. You are all assigned to go to a country called the United States of America and stay in the city of San Diego, which is in the state of California. You all will stay alert for Sound Nin, since we just found three of the island's Border Patrol ninja dead last week. No village except for the Sound would attack the Border Patrol. Whenever you are fighting, I want you all to be in pairs and to use teamwork in order to defeat any enemies. This is why I selected you 12 chuunins; because you all have a strong sense of teamwork. I have assigned pairs who will train together in Konoha and get used to relying on another. Having two-person teams is much more efficient because then, it will be easier to depend on one another. These are the fighting pairs: Kiba and Shino, Tenten and Neji, Sasuke and Sakura, Lee and Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji, and Naruto and Hinata. You all have been assigned to these pairs because your strengths will go along well with each other. For example, Kiba and Shino are paired up because Kiba is very offensive while Shino is defensive. Tenten prefers medium to long range combat, while Neji excels in close combat with his Jyuuken. Sasuke's excellent taijutsu and ninjutsu will go along with Sakura's genjutsu and healing skills. You will all train with each other, and try to find some teachers who will help you. Kiba and Shino, your parents can help with family techniques, and Shikamaru and Chouji can train through the help of their parents because their dads were on the same team. Some of you may have to train without any senseis, however, but you all have one month to train before you all depart.

"For those of you who are wondering, the mission will go on for at least one year." Everyone was, again, surprised. "I have asked permission from your families, and they all have agreed. You all are dismissed."

Naruto walked over to Hinata, who was looking at him shyly and blushing. Naruto, naturally, said in his excited voice, "Hey Hinata! It looks like we're partners, huh! I'm glad I'm with someone who's strong, though."

Hinata blushed even more and softly replied, "I'm not that strong, not as strong as the others."

Naruto was unconvinced and encouraged her. "Of course not! You need to believe in yourself, Hinata. You're very strong and determined, and you showed that in the match against Neji."

Hinata bowed her head to hide her deep blush and said, "Arigato, Naruto-kun."

Naruto responded happily, "We can go get something to eat, and then we can start training."

Hinata nodded and was about to leave when Tsunade spoke up. "Hey, Naruto! Wait up, I need to talk to you and Hinata."

Both of them walked to the Fifth, and Tsunade said, "Naruto, I believe that you and Hinata here are the strongest pair and have the most potential. With the right training, you two should be able to work in a team flawlessly. I am sorry, Hinata, but I am assigning you two to study with Jiraiya-sama."

Hinata replied, "Why are you sorry? Jiraiya-sama is one of the Sannin and is Naruto's sensei, right? He should be very strong and can teach us very well."

Tsunade shook her head and said, "He's not as perfect as everyone thinks. Evidently, his reputation has not gotten around to everyone yet." When Hinata looked confused, Tsunade clarified. "He's a pervert, Hinata. Naruto knows all about it."

Hinata was surprised that one of the strongest Konoha ninjas would be a pervert, yet Naruto supported Tsunade's statement by saying that he peeped, etc. Then, Naruto asked, "Hey, Obachan, shouldn't Hinata be studying her clan's techniques?"

Tsunade smiled at them both and said, "No, Hinata has mastered some of her clan's techniques already. In fact, Hiashi-sama was reluctant to lead you go, Hinata, because he wanted to train you more. He said that you had made vast improvement over the last week."

Hinata was surprised that her father actually wanted to train her, since she though she was a failure. However, she understood why her father was impressed with her improvement.

Flashback:

Hinata thought to herself, _"I must improve and become stronger! I cannot just give up, even though I am a failure to my clan. My nindo says that I must struggle through my failures and try harder to succeed. Since Neji learned Hakkeshou Kaiten on his own, I should be able to, as well. The jutsu is when the person releases chakra from the whole body and rotates around extremely fast. I should first practice releasing chakra from my whole body."_

Hinata focused chakra to her many chakra points in her body and released her chakra from them simultaneously. To her dismay, she only managed to release very little chakra. _I have to keep a continuous chakra flow in my body in order to be able to release enough chakra for the jutsu._ Hinata circulated chakra in her body and tried again, this time gaining substantially more chakra. After training for the rest of the day, she barely managed to be able to summon enough chakra for the Kaiten. After that, she practiced spinning in place. She found that summoning chakra to her feet would make the Kaiten much easier and managed to gain enough speed by her sixth day of training. On the seventh day, she combined the two skills and came up with a usable Kaiten that still needed more improvement.

"Hinata-sama, your father is calling for you," said one of the Hyuuga's servants.

Hinata thanked her and went to her father's room, afraid of what her father was disappointed in now.

"Hinata, you have not been anywhere with your team this past week. I understand that your sensei is on a mission, yet that is no excuse for missing your training. Explain yourself."

"Gomen, I'm- I'm sorry. I was training on my own."

"How were you training yourself?"

"Because Neji-nii-san learned the Kaiten on his own, I- I tried to learn it myself."

Hiashi was surprised that his daughter was this motivated. He then said, "Prove yourself. Let me see your progress."

Hiashi stepped back as Hinata let her chakra circulate through her body. She then released her chakra, by focusing some to her feet, and spun extremely fast while placing her hands out in front to perform her Kaiten. Hiashi commanded her to stop, and Hinata was nervous, wondering what her father's reaction would be. Did she do it wrong, or was she not supposed to learn it on her own? Suddenly, Hiashi gave a small smile at her and said, "Hinata, I am very impressed. I never knew that you would be this determined to become stronger. Your Kaiten has good form, even though you learned in on your own. How long did this take you to learn?"

Hinata replied, "One- one week."

Hiashi was surprised and said, "You have made much progress. You are much more like a Hyuuga heir, now. I will train you tomorrow, for your Kaiten requires more power. I will also teach you some more of the clan's techniques."

End of Flashback:

"Hey Hinata, do you want to get something to eat? It's noon, and we need to train soon. We can eat lunch together."

Hinata blushed and stammered, "If it's not a problem."

Naruto smiled responded, "Of course it's not! We're partners, right? We're going to have to get used to being with each other."

Naruto, surprisingly, suggested a small restaurant, where he ordered some ramen and Hinata asked for unagi (eel). (A/N: Naruto is just being a gentleman and taking Hinata to a place where she is not restricted to fifty different flavors of ramen at Ichiraku.)

When they were done with their food, with Naruto gorging six bowls of ramen and Hinata finishing her one bowl of unagi while blushing at Naruto, he suggested for them to try to find Jiraiya.

"Naruto-kun, where can we find Jiraiya-sama?"

"Ah, ero-sennin should be at the bathhouses, peeping as usual."

Both of them set off to the bathhouses, and of course, Jiraiya had his telescope out and was (guess what!) peeping. Naruto groaned and performed a seal.

"Henge no Jutsu!"

With that, Naruto transformed into a woman (dressed) and screeched, "Pervert!" while slapping Jiraiya across the face. Naturally, Jiraiya pounced on him, growling, "Naruto!" while women screamed and slapped Jiraiya.

"Pervert! How dare you peep and attack a woman!"

Jiraiya stumbled out, with hand marks all over his face and groaned at Naruto, who had undone his jutsu and was laughing. Meanwhile, Hinata had observed all of this quietly.

"What do you want, Naruto?" growled Jiraiya.

"Didn't obachan tell you? You have to train me and Hinata for our upcoming mission."

"Ah, right. You must be Hyuuga Hinata. How unfortunate of you to be partnered with Naruto."

Hinata stammered, "No, it's all right with Naruto-kun, Jiraiya-sama."

Jiraiya took note of her blush and concluded that she liked Naruto. Evidently, Naruto was oblivious to this.

"All right. Tsunade told me that you two had the most potential as a partnered team, so I will be training you two to work together. Your upcoming mission will require you all to travel in groups of two or more, and this mission is very dangerous, being a B-rank mission.

"Now, the first thing about partnering is that you two must know about each other thoroughly. So, Naruto, I'll have to have you tell Hinata about 'it'."

Hinata noticed immediately that Naruto's enthusiastic expression had sunken to a sad expression. She wondered what 'it' was.

"Ero-sennin, I can't do that. It's against the law."

"Not if you tell the person. Besides, this is very important. Hinata's life might be in danger if she doesn't know about 'it'."

Naruto sunk his head, feeling depressed. He could already anticipate Hinata's reaction. "Ero-sennin, she won't want to be my partner after I tell her."

Jiraiya said sorrowfully, "I'm sorry if that happens, but you'll have to tell her. Remember that her life can be in danger."

Hinata looked at the ground, feeling sympathetic for Naruto. What could 'it' be? Could it be so bad that she wouldn't want to be Naruto's partner anymore? She shook her head. She would always stay be his side and quietly watch over him. She would never leave him.

Naruto looked at her and said, "Hinata, this secret that I am about to tell you cannot be told to anyone else. Please, if I tell anyone, most likely, they'll leave me alone and reject me. It's okay if you don't want to be my partner after I tell you this. It's already happened a lot, and another person won't make a difference."

However, Naruto felt in his heart that the pain of Hinata also hating him would feel far worse than the hatred of the villagers. He sighed and began to speak in a quiet, sad voice…


	2. Chapter 2

I forgot to say this, but I DON'T OWN NARUTO!

On request of FireDragonBL, I'm going to have some NejiTen.

To answer Dragon Man 180's question "How did the original missing-nins get to the island", I have an answer. After some ninjas left the island, they discovered that society outside of the ninja countries did not know that ninjas existed. These ninjas, who were exploring, came back and reported everything to the countries and villages. Before they could arrange the international treaty, some missing-nin decided to seek refuge in the newly discovered lands, hoping to escape from hunter-nins. After they were safe in the new lands, they became to get greedy and became mercenaries.

Chapter Two

A huge swirl of chakra spun, deflecting a storm of kunais, shurikens, hooks, and other various weapons. The many blades fell to the ground, and the swirl of chakra stopped, leaving a huge crater with a 14-year-old male in the center of the crater, wielding the famed Byakugan. Suddenly, four kunais whizzed at his back. Caught off guard, the white-eyed Hyuuga was forced to dodge the kunais, barely missing him. A 14-year-old female walked towards him.

"I'm getting better! I almost got you that time."

Neji merely kept quiet and listened to Tenten, who was happy that she was a little closer to bypassing Neji's absolute defense.

"Hey Neji, we're partners because I use medium to long-range techniques, and you use short range with your Jyuuken, right?"

Neji nodded, not saying anything.

Tenten sighed. Even though Naruto had changed Neji, who had become much nicer, he was still extremely quiet. Tenten had some feelings for him and cared about him, yet he didn't seem to notice her. She had accepted long ago that Neji probably wouldn't get associated with any girl.

"Neji, do you want to stop for lunch? We can continue after."

Neji nodded again, keeping quiet.

Tenten smiled and led him through the village and chose a small café, where they sat down across each other.

Neji glanced at Tenten, who was browsing the menu. Neji was grateful that he was partnered with Tenten. He might be able to stand other people training with him, yet Tenten seemed to be the only one who respected his quietness. She somehow managed to be able to cope with his quietness, to be able to talk to him in a friendly manner without being too loud and annoying.

"Uh…Neji, what is it?" Tenten asked nervously.

Neji realized that he had been staring at her and immediately turned his head back to the menu.

"Nothing."

Tenten held her menu up to hide her blushing face. 'Neji stared at me!'

Neji felt extremely embarrassed without showing it. He knew that Tenten would have strange thoughts about him.

They ordered their food and left to go train again. Tenten suggested, "Neji, do you think that we should try to use our attacks so that they complement each other? We could train to do that, since we are partners."

Neji thought it over and agreed with his simple nod.

Tenten smiled, and they headed off to the training area.

"…and that's why the villagers hate me, because the Yondaime Hokage sealed Kyuubi inside of me," finished Naruto.

Hinata gasped, and she saw that Naruto was doing his best to hold off some tears by looking away and turning his back to Hinata. He sighed and said, "I understand if you don't want to be my partner anymore" while looking at the ground.

Hinata placed her hand on his shoulder and said, "I don't think you're a monster."

Naruto looked at her. His bright blue eyes were dimmed with sadness.

Hinata continued, "I think that you're very brave and strong for bearing through this pain without telling anyone about it. When you said to Neji about having a seal that can never be taken off, you said, 'So what about it?' You dealt with the pain without trying to gain any sympathy from anyone. You're still Naruto, you're not Kyuubi. That's why you're so strong, because you dealt with loneliness, found some people to acknowledge, and bore through the pain without giving up because you had to protect those people."

Naruto looked at her in surprise, and to her surprise, he hugged her while saying, "Arigato, Hinata. Few people have acknowledged or understood me like that."

Hinata came back to her timid self and blushed deeply. Naruto released her from the hug and looked at her in the eyes.

"You know what, Hinata? You're also one of my precious people. During my fight against Neji, I thought of keeping my promise to you."

"What promise?" Hinata asked softly.

"Oh right, after Neji's fight, I promised to you, Neji, and myself that I would take revenge against Neji since he mentally attacked you during your fight."

Hinata blushed while thinking, 'Naruto really did that?' "That's why you managed to win, because you had to live by your nindo."

Naruto smiled and said, "Of course! I can't take back my words."

Jiraiya interrupted them, "Alright, now let's get to training." 'I'm glad that finally, another person has accepted Naruto even through the Kyuubi.'

The three ninja set off to the river, where Naruto learned how to summon and how to water-walk. He smiled and thought, 'This brings back good memories.'

Jiraiya sat down and said, "I'm assuming you guys don't know much about each other's techniques, since the Chuunin exams were almost six months ago, and both of you must have developed some new techniques. Since you both haven't been able to see each others techniques for close to six months, I recommend you show them to each other and to me so that I know how to train you two. Well, ladies first."

Hinata glanced at Naruto, who sat down and grinned at her. She blushed and demonstrated some Jyuuken.

Jiraiya nodded in approval, taking note of her surprising speed and perfect chakra control.

Hinata stopped and prepared for the Kaiten. Circulating chakra throughout her body, she whirled like a top, causing a crater to form beneath her feet. Naruto gaped at this, while Jiraiya looked surprised.

"Hey Hinata, when did you learn that? Isn't that the technique that Neji used against me? It's pretty much at the same level as his Kaiten," yelled Naruto in approval.

Jiraiya shook his head and said, "This Kaiten is much better than any other Kaiten I have seen. Flawless chakra control and good spin. While it's still not as powerful as some other Kaiten, it has much better structure and form."

Hinata, not used to receiving such complements, looked at the ground, smiling to herself.

Jiraiya smiled at her, then said to Naruto, "All right, let her see what you can do."

Naruto smiled and started off with a Tajun Kage Bunshin No Jutsu. He dispelled them immediately and formed the seals of Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, and Sheep to summon a medium-sized, armored frog. After learning to control his chakra better, he could summon the right sized frog whenever he needed it, at least for most of the time.

Hinata looked in wonder at Naruto's frog summon, which also dissipated right away. She had no idea that he was this strong.

Naruto spoke up, "I also have a couple scrolls to summon some frogs, but I'll skip those."

He then prepared for his trump card technique by standing next to a tree. 'Ero-sennin hasn't seen me attempt the one-handed Rasengan yet, but I'll try it out. Besides, he knows that I can do it two-handed.'

Naruto swirled chakra in his hand, taking his time to create the multiple rotations. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hinata gazing at this technique, since he didn't use it in the Chuunin Exams. He also saw Jiraiya, who was amazed that Naruto was attempting it one-handed. Naruto stared at the tree ahead of him, then at the ball of rotating chakra in his hand. He swirled it even faster and slammed his palm into the tree, hoping that it wouldn't immediately explode in his hand.

To his surprise, the Rasengan grinded the tree trunk into bits of bark. Allowing it to grind an average-sized hole, he released the jutsu. Hinata looked amazed while Jiraiya looked in disbelief.

Jiraiya recovered from his shock and looked at them both while smiling. "Well, this surprises me. It looks like we have another Hyuuga prodigy and a dropout who managed to master the Rasengan one-handed. Well, it looks like I'll have to teach Hinata jutsus that require a lot of chakra control, and Naruto, you'll work best with rotating chakra. I have two techniques, one for each of you.

"Hinata, yours is known as the Chakra Bullet, which fires off compressed chakra that explodes on impact against the target. I am teaching you this technique because you have great chakra control, so you can use this jutsu from any place on your body. I fire the bullets from my palms, but you may be able to fire it from your chakra holes. "

With that explanation, he held his palm, facing outwards towards a tree that was about 15 feet away.

"Chakra Dangan (Chakra Bullet) No Jutsu!"

Jiraiya then fired waves of small chakra bullets, shaped into tiny spheres. The bullets shot out of Jiraiya's palm as though it were a machine gun. The bullets hit the tree and caused small, blue explosions, covering the tree with chakra explosions.

Jiraiya then continued, "You can combine this with your Kaiten so that you fire the chakra bullets while you spin around so that you can use the jutsu even faster. You can also combine this with your Hakke Rokujuu Yonshou (64 Tenketsu thing). You can use the bullets instead of your fingers to hit the tenketsus so that you can close the chakra holes from a distance. However, that will require precise aiming, and you will need to practice hard for that. What's good is that this jutsu requires no hand seals and works extremely well for both offensive and defensive purposes.

"Naruto, your new jutsu is called a water element technique called Water Vortex. I am using your talent for rotating chakra, since the technique required in this jutsu is similar to the Rasengan."

Jiraiya then place his hands together in a seal similar to the Sheep seal, except with the ring fingers and pinkies interlocking with each other.

"Suiton: Mizu Kadou (Water Vortex) No Jutsu!"

A whirlpool formed in the river, and a column of spiraling water burst out of the center of the whirlpool. The column of water headed straight for a nearby tree, the water impacted against the tree, and pieces of bark and wood flew out from the impact. (A/N: Just to use an analogy, this technique is similar to the Grand Waterfall that Kakashi used against Zabuza, except that the diameter of the column of water is about 5-6 inches or around 14 centimeters.) When Jiraiya released the technique, a hole was left in the tree.

"You can also create multiple vortexes at once. I can create about seven vortexes at one time. Naruto, start off with only one vortex. You can try to attempt more than one later on.

"I'll help you both in your jutsus. Naruto, you go and swirl your chakra around in the water, but create multiple rotations, like the Rasengan. This will be much more difficult, since instead of swirling it in your hands, you have to swirl it in the water. I'll help Hinata out first.

"Oh, and, Hinata, my teaching styles may be much more different from those of others. I want to teach my pupils how to independently train so that if I am not present, they can still train by themselves without me. Well, let's get started on this jutsu. You saw how I did this, so attempt to fire one chakra bullet."

Hinata thought to herself, 'Jiraiya-sama fired them from his chakra holes, and he also compressed his chakra. The problem is, I don't know how much to compress it.'

Hinata compressed some chakra into a chakra hole in her palm, held it in front of tree, and started to compress the chakra into a small sphere. She then released the small ball of chakra, which flew straight towards the tree. However, instead of exploding, the chakra merely dissipated when it hit the tree.

'I need to compress it more.'

Hinata then compressed the chakra until the pressure from the chakra was extremely strong. She then released a bullet, which, to her happiness, exploded against the tree.

"Good job, Hinata. Now, the problem is that you have to be able to fire those rapidly. Try firing two from the same chakra hole, except make them fire directly after the other."

Hinata compressed a ball of chakra and fired that. However, she found that she would have to compress the chakra all over again in order to fire a second round. She then took a larger amount of chakra and compressed all of it. She then decided that maybe, she should split that amount of chakra into two sections and shape the two sections into two spheres. That way, she would be compressing all of the chakra in the beginning and fire the bullets after she had compressed a large amount of chakra.

Hinata then fired two bullets, which both hit the tree, creating two small explosions. Jiraiya smiled and said, "I am surprised. You have found out how to fire from the same chakra hole in quick succession. However, as you know, there are more than one chakra holes in the palm. Try to fire two chakra bullets, each one from a different chakra hole, and fire them at the same time. I will let you try this on your own. After you do this, continue doing the same exercise, except with three chakra holes. Do this until you can fire chakra bullets from every chakra hole in your palm. I am going to aid Naruto in his technique now. Judging from your rapid learning, you should be able to master this technique in a few days."

With that, Jiraiya went off to help Naruto in his jutsu while Hinata trained for her technique against a very battered tree.


	3. Chapter 3

I don't own Naruto.

"Hey, Naruto!"

"What, Ero-Sennin?"

Jiraiya closed his eyes and attempted to hold in his anger. Veins popped out of his head. 'Think calming thoughts…Breathe in and out…'

"Alright Naruto, let me see your progress."

Naruto formed the seal by interlocking his pinkies and ring fingers and pointing his forefingers and middle fingers upwards. "Mizu Kadou (Water Vortex) No Jutsu!"

A small whirlpool of water formed in the river, and a thin column of spiraling water burst out from the center of the whirlpool. The pillar of water curved to the side and hit against the side of a tree, leaving nothing but wet wood.

Naruto cursed himself. 'I can't get this jutsu to be powerful enough. Maybe if I tried to rotate the chakra faster, then it would be more powerful.'

Naruto swirled more chakra into the water, which formed a column of water that swerved upwards and smashed against the battered tree, which left a small dent in the tree's trunk.

'Still not powerful enough. I better try again.'

"Still no vortex, huh? You're making as much progress on this jutsu as the Kuchiyose (Summoning) No Jutsu. That took you, what, a month? You only have a week, and I'm hoping that you can learn this one pretty quick so that you can train for other stuff."

Naruto tensed up and summoned more chakra to try and show Jiraiya that he was capable of learning this jutsu quickly. A spiraling column of water rose from the center of a fairly large whirlpool of chakra and water, and the water curved up and smashed into the beaten-up tree, which collapsed as the water hit the dent where the previous vortex had hit. Jiraiya looked at him in approval and said,

"Good progress. However, there is more to that technique. You can also create more than vortex at once. I can create about five; eight if I use most of my chakra. I'd like you to at least be able to get two vortexes before we progress."

(The Next Day)

"Good job, Hinata and Naruto. Both of you made extremely good progress, far better than what I expected. We still have five more days until we leave for this United States thing. Never been there; actually, I've been to this place called Europe. Ah, that place was heaven. All their beaches…" as Jiraiya closed his eyes and chuckled in his perverted self. (A/N: In case you guys didn't know, European beaches are nude beaches. There are beaches in Europe that don't have nudes, but the nudist beaches in Europe are given the title of European beaches.)

Hinata and Naruto, not knowing what Europe was, looked at him in confusion, yet Naruto, knowing Jiraiya's personality and being familiar with Jiraiya's perverted chuckle, naturally yelled at him.

"All right, I think that you two should both work in your weaker areas. Naruto, your taijutsu is, well, pathetic, and Hinata, your ninjutsu isn't bad, yet you could learn another technique or two. So, Hinata will be learning how to summon, and Naruto, I will be teaching you a new taijutsu style that I happen to know a little about and that the Yondaime mastered. So, Naruto, ladies first. Since you have mastered the tree-walking and water-walking, I want you to walk on trees and on water with your hands only. This will train you to summon chakra to your hands and to be able to control it. It will be useful for this new taijutsu style."

So Naruto went off and practiced this new exercise, while Hinata sat down with Jiraiya and thought over which animal to summon.

"I don't recommend summoning a frog because if you two both have to summon, only one of you will be able to summon the Frog Boss, Gamabunta, while the other will summon a lesser frog. In a tight situation, I'd prefer to have two bosses. So, which animal do you like?"

Hinata picked the owl (A/N: I picked because 1) I can't imagine Hinata summoning anything other than a bird, 2) the owl has strong eyesight, which is relates to the Byakugan.)

Jiraiya found an old friend who happened to have the scroll for the owls. Hinata signed the contract with her blood, and in thirty minutes, she was able to summon a fully-grown owl that was slightly larger than a regular owl. She had excellent chakra control to determine what size owl, yet she would probably have to increase her chakra stamina to summon the Owl Boss. Jiraiya left her to train her chakra stamina while he went off to teach the new taijutsu to Naruto.

"All right, Naruto, this taijutsu was developed by the Yondaime, who based it off of the Hyuuga's Jyuuken. Because he and you don't have the Byakugan, the Yondaime designed his taijutsu so that it would combine the Tekken, which does external damage, and Jyuuken, which does internal damage in few hits, by dealing external damage in very few hits by summoning chakra into one's palm. The chakra is used not to damage the internal organs, yet by burning the opponent with raw chakra, by using the chakra to increase impact, or by using chakra to bypass the skin and muscles and breaking the opponent's bones.

"Lucky for you, the first two techniques of this taijutsu, which is called the Kashouken (A/N: "Kashou" means "burn", and I just added the "ken" part so it fits with Jyuuken and Tekken.), does not require much chakra control. However, the last technique does, since you have to be able to break the bones without ripping the skin or ripping the muscles.

"I know all three techniques, I just have never used them in an actual battle, so I lack in experience. I'll teach you this, since you obviously can't do Tekken, and you don't have the Byakugan for the Jyuuken. So, have you gotten the walking yet?"

Naruto smiled and said, "Yeah, I can walk on both with my hands."

Jiraiya watched Naruto walk on trees and on water with his hands as he thought to himself, 'How do both Hinata and Naruto progress so well? Even if they are both chuunins, the techniques that I have taught them should have taken a lot longer. Maybe Hinata has been progressing because she seems to like Naruto and may want to impress him, but maybe Naruto is also trying to impress Hinata? Hmm, I never pictured Naruto as being a lover-boy…'

Naruto finished his training and walked over to Jiraiya, asking about the next training.

Jiraiya said, "Alright, calm down. We'll start off with the burning part of the taijutsu style. Raw chakra naturally burns, which explains the burns on your hands when you were training the Rasengan. That's also why chakra takes the form of fire whenever someone summons or concentrates a large amount of it. The bodies of ninja are adapted so that the chakra does not burn them as easily, and because of the Kyuubi, your skin is resistant to chakra burns more than others. I was very surprised that you did so much training that your palms burned from the chakra.

"You need to be able to shoot chakra from your palms in a way similar to Hinata's Jyuuken, except that instead of concentrating it to hit the chakra points, you don't need to concentrate or control it in any way. Just let the chakra burn the target. Here, I'll give a demonstration."

Jiraiya concentrated chakra into his hands, which made his hands surrounded by blue fire. Jiraiya went up to another poor tree, and he then did a quick palm strike. The chakra burned the trunk of the tree, resulting in a circular burn mark having a radius of about 5 inches (or about 13 cm).

"This burn damage is produced for each palm strike, punch, or kick. Therefore, this is a powerful taijutsu if you are able to use it correctly. Since you have high chakra stamina, this would suit you because you would be able to use multiple strikes to the enemy to give multiple burns without losing too much chakra."

Naruto then went off to practice this taijutsu.

Ok, I got bored of going in detail of their training, so I'm going to skip to the end of the week:

Naruto woke up to an alarm clock, which he turned off and rubbed his eyes. Knowing that he had to be at the gates of Konoha at seven to start his journey, he pulled out some clothes that Obachan had provided for him. All of the ninja had to wear certain clothing that she had provided, since they had to fit in with the rest of the non-shinobi world. Naruto pulled on an orange T-shirt with a blue sweatshirt and a pair of jeans. His hair stuck out wildly, looking much like the Yondaime. He had left his forehead protector with Iruka-sensei, just in case some guy would try to break in. He had left his usual clothing in his apartment yet entrusted his few valuables to Iruka. His kunai and shuriken had all been stored in a suitcase along with everyone else's so that their weapons wouldn't be caught in the carry-on luggage. He then packed all of his stuff into a backpack, ate some instant ramen, and set off to the gates of Konoha to travel to America.

Sorry for such a short chapter, but since I won't be able to update for about a week, I figured that I should update before I leave for vacation. Please review; I only have five reviews, which is pretty sad.


	4. Chapter 4

Thanks for the reviews from KaijudoGirl, TimeShifter, Midnight Lies, Donut-nin, and Dragon Man 180! Chapter 2 only got 1 review, and I got kinda sad…But Chapter 3 got 5, so now I'm happy!

I don't own the anime series, _Naruto_.

Chapter Four

Hinata smiled to herself as she enjoyed walking down a trail through a green forest. Kiba and Naruto were being loud as usual, obvious excited for the trip, Shino and Sasuke were glaring at both of them, respectively, for being so loud, and Shikamaru's head was tilted back, staring at the clouds. Sakura, Ino, and Tenten were walking next to her and were talking to each other.

Tsunade and Jiraiya were accompanying the twelve shinobi for about three days so that they could arrive safely without disturbing anyone or letting anyone know that they were supernatural. They would be walking to the coast of the shinobi island, where they would travel by something called an airplane to a province that Tsunade called Florida. They would arrive in a city named Miami, where they would go to something called an airport and travel in another airplane. Hinata had no idea what these things were, and she hoped that Tsunade would describe them.

She had learned many jutsus under the teaching of Jiraiya, who, in addition to the Chakra Dangan (Chakra Bullet) No Jutsu and the Kuchiyose (Summoning) No Jutsu, taught Hinata the Mizu Bunshin (Water Replication) No Jutsu so that after Naruto used his Mizu Kadou (Water Vortex) No Jutsu, she could create bunshins out of the water puddles that would remain after the water vortex dissipated.

Naruto ran up to Tsunade and said/yelled out, "Hey, Obachan, where are we going to stay when we arrive in this San Diego place?"

Tsunade sighed and said, "I'll explain everything later when we arrive at the coast."

(30 Minutes Later)

"Alright, everyone, I'll start explaining all of the questions that are probably in your head. Okay, so we leave on this private jet," as she gestured to a small plane on a runway, "to the United States of America, or the USA or US for short. The USA has 50 states, or in our terms, 50 provinces. We will arrive in the state of Florida, in a city called Miami, which is on the coast. Then, we will go to Miami Airport and fly on a plane about two or three times the size of this one to San Diego Airport.

"One thing that I have to tell you is that this Earth that you will be going to is the shape of a sphere. Because of this, it can be day while the other side of the world will be night. Therefore, time has to change between each section of the Earth. The Earth is split into 24 time zones, one for each hour of the day. There are always 24 different times in the world. This is different for our island because our island only fits into one time zone.

"Therefore, you have to adjust to the new time zones. You will be crossing about ten time zones by the time you arrive in San Diego, so you will all have to adjust your bodies' sleeping and eating times. A tip is to stay up until your usual bedtime in the new time zone. Even if you haven't slept for 24 hours, still stay up because that will help you adjust faster.

"And finally, we will be taking a little trip to another city when we arrive to San Diego. It's kinda like a vacation spot, and we all will relax there for three days. The name of the place that we are going is called," Tsunade explained with a very happy and I-can't-wait expression, both of which were also on Jiraiya's face (A/N: Can you guess? What city in the USA that isn't too far away from San Diego, California, holds the things that please Tsunade and Jiraiya the most? Pause and think about it.),

"LAS VEGAS!" shouted out Tsunade and Jiraiya with very excited expressions on their faces. Tsunade started drooling as she thought about the countless number of casinos, and Jiraiya let out a perverted giggle/chuckle.

The 12 chuunin looked at them confused and sweatdropped while Tsunade and Jiraiya spaced out and started dreaming about Vegas.

Naruto, being the one who knew Jiraiya and Tsunade the best, yelled out, "What, is this place filled with girls and slot machines! What are we supposed to do, then! None of us are perverted or obsessed with gambling!"

Tsunade explained, "Oh, there's going to be stuff for you guys to do. Anyways, let's get on the plane, and you'll see what the rest of the world is like."

The 12 shinobi climbed up into the private jet and made themselves comfortable. Naruto sat with Shikamaru and Chouji, as Sakura was sitting with the other girls, and Sasuke would obviously refuse to sit with him. Naruto managed to get a window seat, and he watched as the plane picked up speed. All 12 shinobi glanced out the window and looked uncomfortable.

The plane suddenly left ground, and Naruto watched as the plane left the ground.

(Miami International Airport)

Hinata stood with the rest of her fellow ninjas and looked nervously around at the crowd. Sakura's pink hair and Hinata and Neji's white eyes had drawn a lot of stares.

"All right, everyone, I finished checking in our suitcase filled with our weapons and other ninja stuff. Okay, I have all of your boarding passes. Lucky for you guys, you don't need passports, since we're staying in the same country for about a year.

"These boarding passes," Tsunade said, waving them, "are your tickets to San Diego. Without it, you won't be able to go. As for your passports from San Diego to Miami in one year, we will be returning at that time to meet you and stay with you guys for a couple of days before returning. Don't draw too much attention," Tsunade glared at Naruto, "and be alert for Sound Nin. Don't forget your mission here. So, let's go!"

(After the long, endless security…)

Naruto gazed up at a sign that displayed "41".

"All right, we've arrived at gate 41. We have about an hour before the plane boards, so you guys can have some free time. Don't draw attention, and don't leave this floor. There are some restaurants, as the food on the airplane was not appetizing. Eat and relax. Be back here at 2:15; the flight starts at 2:30. Don't be late!" Tsunade then excused them.

With that, the 12 shinobi walked together to see what there was to eat or drink. Then, Ino spotted a place that seemed good.

"Hey, let's try this place. It calls itself a fast-food restaurant, so delivery should be quick. Besides, it looks more casual than other places."

Naruto looked up to stare at the logo of the place: a big yellow "M". (A/N: Guess!"

Naruto then walked up to a freaky-looking clown on a sign with red hair, a white face, and red and yellow clothing. "Ronald McDonald…" he read off the bottom of the sign. (A/N: In case you're wondering, I'm not crazy about McDonald's. Well, it's tolerable, and I'll eat it. I just picked this place b/c it's pretty well known.) Naruto then joined with the rest of the 12 shinobi. They ordered their food, and they all sat down at a huge table.

"Uh…N-Naruto-kun?"

Naruto turned to face Hinata, who was carrying her tray of McDonald's food.

"Hey, Hinata! What is it?"

"Uh…d-do you mind if I s-sit next to you?" Hinata stammered while blushing.

"Of course not! Here, sit down!"

Hinata shyly sat next to him, while Naruto poked his Big Mac, never seeing a stranger piece of food. He first took a small bite, then judged it as pretty good, although not as good as his beloved ramen.

Hinata was looking at her McChicken Sandwich unsurely, yet when she saw Naruto enjoying his meal, she sampled it and decided that it was acceptable. Not the greatest, yet not the worst. Her heart was beating faster than normal, since Tenten was sitting on the other side of her, so she was sitting so that her shoulders were almost touching Naruto's.

Naruto then attempted to start a conversation with Sakura, who just tried to ignore him. Hinata sighed and thought, 'No, Naruto-kun doesn't like me. He just sees me as a friend. No, maybe not even that. Just a teammate. He's always after Sakura. But I guess that's okay. He seems much happier with her than with me. As long as he's happy, I don't care for myself.'

Kiba and Tenten then managed to persuade the other 10 shinobi to finish up and try to find some drinks (A/N: Try and guess what the special American drink is!). The 12 walked around until they reached a place, where Kiba inhaled its scent and enjoyed it. Naruto again looked up at the logo. This time, it was green, with a woman in the center. (A/N: If you seriously don't know this logo, you're pathetic…)

Naruto read off, "Starbucks Coffee…"

The 12 shinobi entered Starbucks, where they decided to order one coffee and sample it. Each one getting one straw, they all sipped some and judged it. Kiba, Tenten, Lee, and Ino judged it as good, while everyone else hated it. (A/N: I have nothing against Starbucks; I just hate coffee in general. After eating Japanese food for their whole lives, I would imagine that the majority of the 12 would hate it, too.)

The four ninja who did like it all ordered one, and they all decided to sit down somewhere and just talk for the remaining 30 minutes. Hinata sat down, not much of a conversation person. To her surprise, Naruto walked over and sat next to her.

"You don't mind, right?" asked Naruto.

Hinata blushed and stuttered, "N-no, you can s-sit there, Naruto-kun."

Naruto noticed a few passing adults who gave strange looks to Neji, Hinata, Sakura, and Shino (A/N: because half of his face is being covered up; he might be a potential terrorist.)

Everyone else noticed the strange looks that virtually the whole airport was giving them. Sakura then noticed a group of three teenage girls who all looked at Sasuke. She laughed, and Sasuke glared at them, knowing that he would never be able to escape fan-girls, no matter where he was.

To Sakura's surprise, the three girls' gaze shifted from Sasuke to Naruto. Sakura then glanced at Naruto, who was obviously oblivious to this and was talking to Hinata. When five teenage boys passed by, she finally understood why Sasuke and Naruto were noticed by the girls.

Being ninja, they burned a lot of calories and therefore did not get fat. Compared to 13-year-old boys in Miami, Sasuke and Naruto were much more muscular than they were because they had to do ninja stuff. Suddenly, Sakura just realized something.

'Wait, Naruto's talking to Hinata?'

Sakura looked at them, where Naruto was talking excitedly to Hinata, who was blushing and was constantly looking at Naruto.

'I see, Naruto's finally off my back and is interested with someone else? Hinata seems to like him, too…I better get Ino, maybe we could match them up? No, I'll leave them alone and just observe them.'

Shikamaru then said, "Hey guys, we better start going. The plane's going to board soon."

The 12 chuunin headed for gate 41, where Tsunade was waiting for them. They all got in line, and they all handed in their boarding passes and started to board the plane.

"All right, we have free seating. Well, pick your seats."

All of the girls, who were on the right aisle, occupied most of row 30. All of the boys except for Naruto filled in the rest of row 30 and 31, and Naruto was left with the window seat in row 32. Naruto naturally felt shunned and felt a pang of loneliness when Hinata shyly came up to him and asked, "Is anyone s-sitting next to y-you?"

Naruto beamed and said, "You can sit here if you want."

Hinata shyly sat down next to Naruto and unconsciously placed her arm on the armrest between them. Unfortunately, Naruto's arm was already there, and Hinata's arm brushed against his, and she blushed even darker.

"G-Gomen, Naruto-kun."

Naruto found himself blushing as well, and he lowered his arm, saying, "Sorry for taking up the armrest."

Hinata tried to look away from Naruto, yet found herself constantly glancing at Naruto. Lucky for her, he was looking out the window, trying to hide his blush. Uninterested with what was happening because the plane wasn't moving, he turned back and found Hinata looking into his eyes. They gazed at each other for about two seconds until Hinata blushed again and looked away. Naruto blushed and looked out the window again.

Naruto found his heart beating rapidly. He had never encountered this type of emotion before, and he decided to ignore it and try to identify it later. Then, the classic aircraft video talking about safety appeared, and he watched, having never seen it before. He noticed that Hinata was also watching, and he was glad that their silence could finally be interrupted.

Both of them put on their seatbelts and listened to the video. Naruto decided that if they ever crashed, all of the shinobi would be able to survive, so he didn't worry about life vests. The airplane video ended, and the plane started to move in the direction of the runway. Naruto looked out the window and tried to adjust his head so that Hinata could see as well.

The plane then started to gain speed, and Naruto watched as the grass outside became a blur. Then, the plane left the runway, and Naruto again felt the odd feeling of flying. He watched as the buildings quickly shrunk in size. He then leaned back, feeling a sudden bout of sleepiness. Naruto then dozed off and went to sleep.

More Naruhina interaction in the next chapter! Please, please, please review!


	5. Chapter 5

Gomen for not updating for a while! I was gone for a week for a foreign exchange student program thing that my school does with a Spanish school in Madrid. At least I'm now done with finals, and summer's coming up, so I might be able to update faster.

Thanks for the reviews! Bleh, only six, though; I've seen one-shots with, like, twenty, and here, a four-chapter (now a five-chapter) story with 17 reviews…That's why you guys _have_ to review because then I feel better about myself and my story. I'd like to thank TimeShifter and Dragon Man 180 for reviewing since the beginning. Thank you! I also have to say something about my story in terms of how it's going to progress.

I'm sick of NaruHina fics where they go out on a date when they're still pretty young. What are the chances that, number one, this relationship would develop in, like, half a chapter, and two, what are the chances that the relationship would last? In order for their relationship to last, they can't suddenly admit their feelings in the beginning of the story because that would ruin the whole point of NaruHina. There is going to be a lot of interaction, but they won't start making out or anything because that doesn't suit their characters. I'm just writing the way I think it should be, yet we all have our opinions, and I'm just expressing my own. Enjoy this chapter!

I'm using "af-s" (animefreak-shinobi) instead of "A/N" just to kinda personalize my fanfics.

naruto-fanfic stated in his/her review, "…so the setting is befor naruto left for 2 and a half years to train." Actually, this is one of those fanfics that doesn't have much relevance to the actual timeline of the real series.

Don't worry, TimeShifter, I also hate it when the relationship is rushed. I won't be doing that.

Hey, drakedragon1, I really have no idea how they are going to spot Sound-nin; I guess they just have to rely on instinct as well as observation. They could also try and detect certain chakra levels from suspicious people and also watch out for suspicious people. As for Naruto's fanclub, I know that Americans don't generally form fanclubs for certain people.

Dragon Man 180, I will try and find a place where some of the male shinobi can beat up some perverted Amercans. As for McDonald's, that place is super famous; that's the only reason of why I picked it. I also agree that BK is better, and I haven't eaten too much of Wendy's, so I can't make a judgment off of that.

lunarangel, I figured that I needed some people to love coffee, and it would be amusing to see someone already hyper become even more hyper. I can't picture Naruto drinking coffee, so I picked Kiba, because he's pretty loud. Now that I think about it, Lee would also make a good choice for getting hyper. As for Ino and Tenten, who both enjoy coffee, will just like coffee because of its taste. I guess that I can't imagine them hyper, and that I think I needed two girls to like coffee because two of the guys like coffee, just to balance it out.

Thank you, Midnight Lies!

* * *

You guys might need a visual aid, so here's the seating on the airplane:

Row 30: Ino-Sakura Tenten-Neji-Shino-Sasuke Chouji-Shikamaru

Row 31: Kiba-Lee

Row 32: Naruto-Hinata

Row 33:Tsunade-Jiraiya

* * *

Chapter Five

Hinata was grateful that Naruto was finally sleeping. Now, her heart would have a chance to slow down its frantic beating. She sighed, looking at his peaceful face, and thought about her memories of Naruto-kun; of how she had sat next to Naruto in the first chuunin exams, of how he had accepted the medicine after his fight with Kiba, of how he had encouraged her in her fight against her cousin, of how he had talked with her before the final round of the chuunin exams. His words echoed through her mind, '_I like people like you…_'

Hinata knew that even if Naruto-kun did not feel the same way that Hinata felt about him, she knew that at least, Naruto-kun had accepted and respected her. This was something that she felt was good enough to keep her happy and motivated. Even if he did love Sakura, Hinata knew that as long as Naruto was happy with Sakura, Hinata would be able to accept this. After all, to love someone means to set him or her free, to not keep them chained to you. As much as it hurt her, Hinata knew that she had to let Naruto-kun free and let him choose between her and Sakura. Unfortunately, Hinata did not feel sure of herself and felt that Naruto would choose Sakura.

_'I hope that at least, we'll be able to be friends, even if you won't love me the way I do…'_ Hinata thought to herself as she leaned her chair back to fall asleep.

…Some amount of time later…

Naruto woke up and immediately felt something light resting against his right shoulder. Looking down to see, he was surprised to see Hinata's head, partially resting on the headrest of the seat and partially resting on Naruto's shoulder. Naruto noticed that Hinata was softly smiling as she was sleeping.

_'What's this? My heart seems to be beating fast. Why's that?'_

Naruto again looked at Hinata's face. He thought about how she had always acknowledged him and noticed him. He remembered how Hinata had encouraged him before his match against Neji. He remembered how during the match, he constantly thought of her and keeping his promise to her. He remembered how after the match, he was constantly thinking about her.

_'I never realized it, but Hinata's always noticed me. She's really loyal. I should get to know her better. She always seems to know how I feel and what to say to me. She seems to understand me best. She understands me as well as Iruka-sensei does. And she always listens to me, instead of ignoring me like Sasuke or Sakura-chan. Heck, why do I even like Sakura-chan. I know that she loves Sasuke, but she could at least listen or pay attention to me. It's as if Hinata like me more than she does, but that doesn't make much sense. After all, me and Hinata aren't even on the same team, and she acknowledges me better than Sakura-chan.'_

Naruto then heard a woman talking behind him and turned around to see a flight attendant carrying a tray with the standard beverages and peanuts. He realized that she was serving them some food and drinks, and he decided to wake up Hinata gently.

Naruto placed his hand on her arm and touched it gently while stage-whispering, "Hey, Hinata…"

Hinata slowly opened her eyes to see a pair of electric-blue eyes looking at her gently, and she immediately blushed.

"Hey, Hinata, I figured that you were hungry, and they're serving some food and drinks."

Hinata lifted her head from Naruto's shoulder, blushed, and stammered, "A-Arigato, Na-Naruto-kun…"

Naruto grinned at her, which left Hinata blushing deeply.

Hinata then noticed something.

"Na-Naruto-kun, was I sleeping on your sh-shoulder?"

Naruto smiled softly at her and said, "Yeah, but it's okay. Don't feel bad."

Hinata blushed and said, "Gomen (Sorry)…"

Just then, the flight attendant came by and asked them what they wanted to drink.

Naruto said, "What do you have to drink?"

The attendant said, "Orange juice, apple juice, water, Coke, or Sprite."

Both Naruto and Hinata were thinking, _'What's Coke and Sprite?'_

They both decided that Coke and Sprite was common in this place, so they decided not to ask what they were.

Naruto chose a Coke to try out what it was, and Hinata decided to sample a Sprite.

"Hey, this stuff is pretty good," said Naruto.

Hinata sipped her Sprite and decided that it was okay.

They both opened their bags of peanuts and ate them slowly. Naruto found himself looking out of the corner of his eye at Hinata. He then noticed that she was also looking at him shyly. Both of them turned their heads away and found themselves blushing.

Naruto decided that he had enough of this silence and started a conversation with Hinata. Or, rather, a monologue with Hinata listening intently…

* * *

Jiraiya peered out of the window and stared out, evidently bored. He could try and whip out an Icha Icha book or start brainstorming some ideas for his next volume, but that would merely anger Tsunade, who would punch out his perversion, whether they were in an airplane or not.

Tsunade suddenly got up and went to the restroom, and Jiraiya breathed a sigh of relief and was about to pull out an Icha Icha book when suddenly…

"Would you like something to drink, sir?"

Jiraiya: O.O

Yes, Jiraiya was staring at some _very_ attractive flight attendant, and he let out a perverted giggle and pulled out his trusty notebook.

The flight attendant looked at him questioningly and thought, "_Okay...,_" before rolling the drink cart further down the aisle.

* * *

Shino: "So, what do you think America's gonna be like?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow while thinking, '_Wow, this guy talked._'

Sasuke: "…"

Shino raised an eyebrow.

Shino: "…?"

* * *

Hinata saw that the plane had finally landed. Naruto was looking excitedly out of the window. She waited until the plane had stopped. She then got up out of her seat. Naruto was already out of his seat, excited that he would finally be able to get off the plane.

"We're finally here! I can't wait to see what San Diego is like!"

Hinata leaned down to pick up her small backpack from underneath the seat in front of her.

"Hey, Hinata, let me help you with that," said Naruto.

Hinata blushed and, being polite, said, "A-Arigato, but it's okay."

Naruto just ignored her and picked up her backpack.

"Th-Thank you, Naruto-kun."

Naruto grinned and said, "No problem!"

The line down the aisle started to move, and Naruto began to pick up his own backpack and walked after Hinata, excited to see San Diego.

Naruto and Hinata walked over to the rest of the shinobi, who were still waiting for Tsunade and Jiraiya. Once they had all grouped together, Tsunade and Jiraiya began leading them towards the baggage claim, while explaining the basics of how an airport works.

Tsunade had the twelve shinobi go over and sit on some of the chairs and stood in front of the baggage claim conveyor belt thing, waiting for it to start.

Meanwhile, the twelve ninja were excited to be finally in San Diego. Most of them were talking loudly, except for the usual Sasuke, Shino, Shikamaru, Neji, and Hinata.

Sakura looked at Sasuke shyly and said, "Sasuke-kun, do you want to go somewhere once we get out of the airport?"

Sasuke, not even bothering to turn to look at her, said curtly, "No, thank you."

Sakura sighed. Even though she had been declined many times, she still hadn't gotten completely used to Sasuke declining.

Naruto said loudly, "I'll go with you, Sakura-chan."

Hinata watched Naruto sadly as he started to try to persuade Sakura to go with him, while Sakura was refusing. She knew that Naruto liked Sakura because she was so much prettier and smarter than she was. Hinata looked at the ground, knowing that she was simply a dropout. She started to argue with herself subconsciously:

_'Well, what about your improvement recently? Doesn't that count for anything?_

_'No, I'm still a dropout, a failure as a shinobi.'_

Hinata sighed, then said to no one in particular, "I'm going to use the restroom."

Hinata walked towards the other side of the building, where there were the signs indicating the restrooms when suddenly, a loud shout was heard.

"THAT GUY, HE'S GOT A KNIFE!"

Hinata turned around to face a snarling, tall man carrying a sheath knife in his hand and pointing it straight at Hinata's throat. (af-s: Don't bother asking how he managed to bring in the knife, let's just pretend that somehow, he did it.")

"DISARM YOURSELF!" shouted some security guy, pointing a gun at the knife-wielding man.

The man chuckled darkly and gripped Hinata in a headlock while holding his blade to her neck, saying, "If you shoot, she dies with me."

The security officer looked worried about this. By now, the other fourteen shinobi as well as the two Sannin had noticed this and knew that they could not use any ninjutsu because it would attract way too much attention, since now, everyone in the building had their attention on Hinata and the man. Even Naruto was smart enough not to do anything stupid. They all knew that Hinata had to get her way out of this situation.

The officer raised his gun higher, and the man, seeing this, ran the blade gently across Hinata's neck threateningly, yet without drawing blood.

The officer thought, "If I can shoot him in the head in the right spot, I might be able to make it so that he can't retaliate (af-s: This is true, some evil guy was holding a gun to some person's head, and a police officer whipped out a shotgun, aimed, and shot the guy in the head, which probably disrupts the nervous system and doesn't allow him to pull the trigger to kill the hostage).

The man seemed to sense this and ducked his head lower, making the officer's aiming much harder. The man was now getting ready to kill her. Hinata gulped, knowing that she had to act, and then counted, _'…One…Two…Three!'_

* * *

To be continued…

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Please review! Also, read my other fanfiction! Hopefully, I'll update soon! 


	6. Chapter 6

Thank you, again, TimeShifter and Dragon Man 180, and now, lunarangel is constantly reviewing. I also thank warprince2000 for reviewing Chapter 5.

I sometimes wonder why I have three constant reviewers: TimeShifter, Dragon Man 180, and lunarangel, when this fic is on 11 favorite stories and 5 story alerts. Review, please! Arigato Gozaimasu!

Also a big thank you to tuareg shinobi, because she is a good friend of mine who is also reading this fanfic. HI TUAREG SHINOBI!

Sorry for not updating in a while, because, having Asian parents, I have to finish up work before I can do other stuff, such as write.

No questions in my puny four reviews and my one review for chapter 1, so onto Chapter 6!

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Disclaimer: I do not own _Naruto_ or Ajisen Ramen.

* * *

Chapter 6 

Suddenly, the man drew the knife across Hinata's neck, drawing huge amounts of blood from her neck artery. The red liquid splashed across the man's arm, and he smiled while waving his blood-covered knife.

Naruto, in a rage, snarled and released an insane amount of Kyuubi's chakra, allowing his nails to lengthen. In one huge roar, he was immediately behind the man, skewering him with long claws...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That was pretty fun, but we all know that Hinata gets saved by Naruto and a few other people, and a little romantic moment blossoms out of the danger of the situation. Here's the real chapter six:

Chapter 6

_'…One…Two…Three!'_

Hinata swerved around and placed a palm strike directly into the man's stomach. She, however, did not release much chakra into the attack, knowing that too much chakra would both kill him and would attract attention from the blue energy that would be visible to (af-s: I can't find the right term here-- ) civilians.

The man reeled back from the blow, yet evidently, he was not harmed enough and charged after the girl, who was afraid that she would show off ninja techniques in her attempt to defeat the enemy.

Hinata lightly activated her Byakugan, only allowing the veins closest to her eyes to bulge out, which would be enough to increase her vision to 180 degrees, yet would not attract attention from the civilians.

The man came in with a knife thrust, his eyes bloodshot and full of anger. Hinata deflected it with a palm strike, yet before she could lash out again, Naruto and Neji, who had immediately reacted to the situation, appeared directly in front of the man, with Neji's white eyes full of anger. Some of Neji's veins around his eyes had simply "popped" out due to his anger. Naruto was yelling madly as he brought his knee up to the man's place where the sun don't shine (af-s: Actually, Dragon Man 180, I had this in mind even before you sent your review).

All of the men watching the fight winced and unconsciously twitched, except for, of course, Neji and Naruto, who were too angry.

The man reeled backwards, howling loudly and clutching his groin. Jiraiya chose this moment to say under his breath, "He won't be having any children sometime soon…"

Neji immediately dealt three quick palm strikes as Naruto finished him with a strong uppercut, which sent the unfortunate man crashing to the floor, already unconscious.

Hinata stared first at the half-dead man, then looked up at Naruto and Neji, who were both panting lightly and staring suspiciously at the unconscious man, as though he would suddenly get back up and attack again.

Everyone at the airport merely stared at Naruto, Neji, and Hinata, who were all looking sheepishly at the crowd of bewildered folks. Tsunade buried her face with her hands, moaning at their display of ninja-ness.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU GUYS WERE DOING!"

The 12 chuunins cringed at the Hokage's evident anger. They had just been interrogated by the police, who were asking for details about the man. They had just gotten out of the airport and were waiting outside for their ride. Evidently, the police, as well as the countless spectators, were astounded that three 13-year-olds could easily and calmly beat up a knife-wielding madman.

Naruto, the only one brave enough to stand up to the Hokage's temper tantrums, yelled back in equal force, "WELL, ME AND NEJI WERE TRYING TO SAVE HINATA!"

Tsunade responded, "WELL, YOU COULD HAVE DONE IT MORE DISCREETLY!"

Naruto shouted, "HOW COULD WE DO THAT!"

Tsunade yelled, "MAYBE BY _NOT_ DODGING EVERY FRICKIN' KNIFE STAB, LOOKING AS THOUGH YOU WERE FIGHTING A THREE-YEAR OLD!"

Hinata tried to intervene, "Ano, Tsunade-sama, Naruto-kun, gomen, but a lot of people are staring at us."

Tsunade looked around to see a bunch of people glancing at them.

"Excuse me, but I would like to see your passports, please. Your friend here is dressed quite suspiciously, and we need to see some identification, as a security measure," said a cop, coming out of nowhere and gesturing at Shino, who was glaring at the officer for deeming him suspicious.

Tsunade groaned while thinking, '_How could I have been so stupid! America's all freaked out about terrorism, and here, I had the stupidity to bring along an Aburame to an airport!_'

Tsunade explained, "We don't have passports; we just came from Miami. None of us have traveled outside of the US." (af-s: Of course, she's lying, she's not going to tell that she just came from an island filled with shinobis.)

The officer said, "Well, I need some confirmation that you guys are not dangerous."

Tsunade reached into her bag and fished around until she pulled out a folder, which held a document. She handed this to the officer, who read it and nodded his head, saying, "Thank you, ma'am, I suppose this will pass as confirmation. Have a nice day."

Sakura stared at Tsunade, who was stuffing the folder back into her bag. "What was that paper?"

Tsunade grinned and said, "I've got some connections with high-ranking government officials who are ex-Konoha shinobis. Basically, the paper says that we all under the government's protection. It's a backup in case we run into legal problems."

Sasuke said, "Hn, can we just go already? There seems to be a transport for us."

Sure enough, there was some middle-aged guy sitting in a charter bus, waving to Tsunade and Jiraiya. The two Sannin waved back, and motioned for the 12 chuunin to board the bus.

As they got in, the bus driver looked at Jiraiya expectantly. Jiraiya sighed and pulled out eight Icha Icha books from his bag and handed them to the driver, who grinned and accepted them.

Naruto glared at Jiraiya, who sheepishly grinned. "Ero-Sennin, you pay this guy in Icha Icha books!"

Jiraiya smiled and said, "Hey, he asked for them. Besides, he's an ex-Konoha shinobi and hasn't read my books in a couple of years, and it's hard to mail stuff from our village, so he's been missing out."

Naruto groaned and sat down next to Hinata, who blushed and looked out the window, tapping her fingers together.

After a bus trip filled with fluffy NaruHina moments, the bus finally stopped in a nice looking neighborhood. Tsunade herded them out of the bus, and the driver left, cackling as he clutched his beloved books.

Tsunade looked at the chuunin and said, "Welcome to La Jolla (af-s: Pronounced "luh hoya", it's Spanish, and it's not pronounced "luh jaula"), one of the nicest places in San Diego. You're lucky that you guys get to stay here, and Konoha's paying for the expenses of housing and food. However, I want costs to be kept to a minimum, and keep in mind that our village is paying, so lower the costs for our beloved Hidden Leaf. I have paid a nearby grocery store to send you guys groceries every week or so. Every thing has been taken care of, so don't worry about anything.

"So, let's walk into your new home."

Tsunade gestured at a nice looking, two story, which seemed average-sized. When they walked in, however, they saw that it was huge.

Tsunade explained, "There are six bedrooms, four upstairs and two downstairs. The girls will be staying downstairs, the guys will be staying upstairs. I don't care how the sleeping arrangements are, just no boys sleeping in the same rooms as the girls.

"There are two bathrooms upstairs and two bathrooms downstairs. The kitchen is over here, I will leave you guys up to the cooking, as you will not be getting catered food.

"This is the living room, where there is a TV, with cable, and a couple of couches and other stuff.

"Essentially, this is a pretty plain house, large enough to accommodate you, but not fancy because there is no need. You are to leave this house intact because you are living in it. No jutsus inside unless it's an absolute emergency, as in a life-threatening event.

"There is a genjutsu set up around the whole house so that any jutsus or chakra cannot be seen by outside eyes. However, should a non-shinobi walk inside the boundaries of this house, they will be able to see jutsus and chakra.

"I am expecting you all to maintain all of your own training while I am gone, because you still have to be alert for Sound-nins. Do not ever invite someone into this house. There is also a security alarm system that will prevent any intrusions during the night.

"Overall, keep yourselves safe, and refrain from letting the outside world know about shinobis. Keep living costs as low as possible. Any questions?"

Naruto immediately spoke up, "Will the grocery store provide ramen?"

Tsunade sighed and said, "I have provided for you, Naruto, a couple of packets of ramen each week. Unfortunately, there are almost no ramen restaurants in America, yet there is one called Ajisen Ramen (af-s: This place really does exist, except I don't know whether a location exists in San Diego. Let's pretend that one does. Ajisen pwns all, try the Tenderous Ribs Ramen. There is definitely one around Los Angeles and New York as well as other major cities and a bunch of them in Asian countries, such as Japan, China, and Indonesia.). I'll give you the address; it's pretty close by.

"Any other questions?"

Sasuke asked, "How will we be doing training? We don't have our senseis to instruct us or anything."

Tsunade answered, "A good question, you will have scrolls mailed to you about once or twice every month, explaining what training you must do. Each of your senseis will give you some training on either ninjutsu, taijutsu, or genjutsu, depending on what they believe you need to work on. Any other questions?"

Tsunade looked around and received no response.

"Alright, well, I did tell you guys to leave all of your shinobi clothes, except for your undergarments, back in Konoha, so we are going to go shopping to a local shopping mall for American clothes. First, choose a bedroom and a bunkmate and unpack all of your stuff that you brought, such as weapons, scrolls, and whatever you guys brought."

Naruto looked around to see if any of the boys would voluntarily stay with him. However, it seemed that, while the girls had almost immediately picked who they would stay with (Ino with Sakura, Hinata with Tenten), the boys seemed a little hesitant.

Tsunade looked at the boys, then said, "Alright, for the boys, each will stay with his own teammate. You can change the arrangements once I leave, but this will make it easier."

Sasuke, Shino, and Neji each looked at their own teammate and said simultaneously, "I really don't want to stay with Naruto/Kiba/Lee."

Tsunade sighed and said, "Well, tough luck, deal with it. Anyways, you will staying with this person in Las Vegas, as well, but once you get back here, you can switch the arrangements."

Tsunade then opened the suitcase that held everyone's weapons and scrolls, and each person took out his or her weapon pouches and other ninja accessories. Naruto brought his stuff up, where he met Sasuke, who said, "Hn. We're going to stay in that room over there, Naruto-dobe."

Naruto yelled at Sasuke, who replied with his usual "Hn", and they both met everyone else downstairs.

"Alright, everyone, we are going to head for the shopping mall. We'll walk there," said Tsunade.

So the 12 chuunin and the two Sannin headed for the nearby shopping mall.

* * *

Next chapter: Should I depict them at the shopping mall or should I skip ahead to Vegas? Choose in your reviews! Please, do review, because I have seen some people who put me on their favorites, but I've never seen a review from them. Review, please, because I want to hit 50+ review by chapter ten! REVIEW! 


	7. Chapter 7

WOOHOO! _Ten_ reviews, I think that's the most I've ever gotten. Nine for chapter six, and one for chapter five. Sure, other fanfics get a lot more than nine per chapter, but I am easily pleased and am deeply grateful to all those who reviewed. Really sorry for the long wait, really busy over the summer. Plus, I watched a bunch of new animes, which distracted me from Naruto. What's good is that I visited San Diego a couple of times, so I have a couple of ideas. Now, to answer some of the questions:

sarunam120, I am a HUGE fan of NaruHina. I could put forth a whole bunch of arguments supported with evidence from the anime and manga, but that would take too much space, and I would venture to guess that you would prefer to read the story than read an argument of the validity of NaruHina. And this story will be kept at K, and no further than that, meaning no lemon/lime.

I would love to put in the Sand Siblings, ShadowTrunks, but I, unfortunately, can't find a way to write about them. Maybe if I can finally find out how to write about them, they will appear, but that would probably only happen in later chapters. I also realize that they do need to interact with Americans more, thanks for giving that suggestion.

Nemesis101, I feel deeply, deeply honored.

Dragon Man 180, I'm getting the feeling that you're psychic, because you seem to be able to predict what's going to happen in the next chapter. First, the kicking-in-the-groin thing, and now, well, you get to see what happens in the chapter. I'm serious, I was really thinking about one of your ideas before you sent your review.

Obviously, NaruHina is the big focus here, but I'm going to put in hints of SasuSaku and NejiTen. I'm really not any good at those, so just bear with me. I've also heard that you can't answer reviews, or something, so just to keep it safe, after this chapter, I generally won't respond to reviews, unless you specifically ask me to answer a question.

Alright, well, everyone wanted me to write about the mall, so here goes my attempt at a funny chapter.

I don't own _Naruto_, Kishimoto Masashi does.

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This chapter is a (very) late birthday gift for my good friend…TUAREG SHINOBI! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! And thanks for offering to stay back with me after the Chem intensives!

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Chapter Seven

"Okay, everyone, this is the shopping mall."

Tsunade gestured to the area behind here, and all twelve chuunins gaped at the size of it. There were tons of people walking everywhere, on three floors of stores and restaurants all aligned. Sakura and Ino were grinning as they looked left and right to see clothing stores everywhere.

"Alright, so I suppose that we should split up. You guys can buy anything you want, just try and be reasonable. You all have American cash, which I gave to you on the way here. Meet right here in, say, two hours. Got it?" explained the Godaime.

"Hai!"

And the twelve shinobi went off in their own directions.

* * *

"Hey, Sasuke-kun, do you want to go with me through the mall? I could help you pick out some clothes," offered Sakura.

"Hn," replied Sasuke. '_Well, I really don't know much about clothing. It might be more helpful if Sakura went with me._'

"Well, Sasuke-kun?"

"Um…" said Sasuke. "_How should I phrase this! This is hard._'

So Sasuke replied firmly with conviction…

"Uh…"

Sakura looked at him questioningly.

Sasuke finally replied with a "Hn" and walked over to Sakura. Sakura squealed, grabbed his hand, and pulled him along.

* * *

"Ne, Hinata? Your face is red. Daijoubu ka?"

Hinata blushed and drew in her breath and squeaked out, "D-Daijoubu…"

Kiba called out, "Hey, Naruto, want to come with me, Hinata, and Shino to look around?"

"Alright!" said Naruto brightly.

"Just don't faint while you're walking with him, Hinata," teased Kiba.

Hinata blushed, and Naruto turned to her and said, "Are you sure you're alright, Hinata? Are you dizzy, or something?"

"Iie, N-Naruto-kun."

"Yosh, let's go!" yelled Naruto.

Which, of course, received a couple of stares from other shoppers.

"Where to, guys?" exclaimed our noisy ninja.

Kiba asked, "Got any ideas, Shino?"

"Um…bug store?"

Kiba sweatdropped. "…How 'bout we buy some local clothing first?"

So Team Eight and Naruto went off to a couple of stores, with Hinata trying not to faint along the way.

* * *

Jiraiya watched all of the shinobi leave, going in separate directions. He looked at his fellow Sannin, who said, "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm gonna go to get some food." Tsunade then promptly left.

Jiraiya sighed, left with nothing to do. He then decided to walk around. Toy store here, bookstore there, clothing store here…

Wait a second. Jiraiya sprinted back to the clothing store and got a glimpse of his beloved. He glanced up at the title of the store. "Victoria's Secret…"

Jiraiya chuckled in his perversion and whipped out his handy, dandy notebook to take note of the American sights…

* * *

Naruto sweatdropped at Shino's choice of apparel. He had about three T-shirts with this strange-looking, red and blue figure with mask and a spider logo on his chest, one shirt that said in neon-green "I 3 Bugs", one that said "Insects Have Feelings, Too", and two shirts with a picture of a cartoon green caterpillar with "Pokémon" written at the top and "Caterpie" written on the bottom. Luckily, the pants/shorts that he picked out seemed to be normal.

Kiba was carrying fairly normal clothing, except that he had gotten about three black sweatshirts to substitute for his usual shinobi clothing. Hinata was holding her own clothing, which looked normal, and she had a white sweatshirt to replace her usual shinobi clothing.

Naruto had decided to cut down on some of the orange and only got two orange shirts, some black ones, some blue shirts, and some basic pants/shorts.

"Um…Shino, you sure that stuff is normal-looking? Especially the weird-looking red-and-blue guy with the mask. What is he, anyways?" said Naruto, gesturing to our favorite superhero.

Shino merely pointed to a little five-year-old boy, walking past with Spiderman on his T-shirt.

"Um…okay, but are you sure that, you know, kids OUR AGE wear that type of stuff?"

"…What difference does it make?"

Naruto sighed, and then suddenly jumped as he heard a feminine scream on the other side of the store.

Naruto, Hinata, Kiba, and Shino glanced over and saw a terrified twenty-year old punk with tattoos, earrings, and extremely saggy pants scream repeatedly. Walking closer, the shinobi saw a…tiny spider crawling around.

The punk squealed, "Eww! Someone, get it, before it bites me and gives me shock, nausea, convulsions, and a coma!"

Shino raised an eyebrow at him. Another punk came by, carrying a rolled-up newspaper. The spider crawled about two more inches, and both punks screeched again in unusually high-pitched voices.

The punk with the newspaper steadied himself, "Okay…calm down…it's just a spider…you just have to kill it….EEK!"

The punk squealed, and then raising the newspaper, he brought it down.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" yelled Shino.

Kiba and Naruto stared at him as Shino ran and dived, using his ninja reflexes to parry the newspaper with one hand and protect the spider with the other. With one hand cupping over the spider, and the other hand on the newspaper, Shino brought both of his feet up to nail the punk twice in the chin, forcing him flying up and over clothes racks and finally crashing into a mannequin ten feet away.

Kiba and Naruto stared in disbelief, as Hinata buried her face in her hands in embarrassment.

* * *

CRASH

"WHAT THE--!"

"GET BACK HERE, YOU LITTLE BRATS!"

"What was that?" voiced Chouji, who was chowing down on five trays of food at the food court. He paused from his beloved food to glance behind him some 50 feet away, seeing a wrecked store and a bunch of people raising their fists and yelling at four unrecognizable sprinting figures.

Shikamaru shrugged and said, "Whatever. Too troublesome to find out." And with that, our lazy ninja went back to sleep again.

* * *

"Shino, I won't even bother to tell you how much an idiot you are."

Akamaru barked in agreement.

Shino glared at Kiba, who was panting after having to run from the store owners.

Naruto sweatdropped, and Hinata tried to calm them down.

Shino then said, "Kiba, how would you like it if you witnessed some people swatting dogs with rolled-up newspapers?"

GASP "They WOULDN'T!"

Shino sighed and said, "Exactly my point. My feelings towards insects and bugs are the same as yours towards dogs."

"…Um…SO! You still shouldn't have…I dunno…KICKED A GUY TWENTY FEET INTO THE AIR!"

sigh "You would have done the same."

"NO! I WOULDN'T BE SO DUMB AS TO BEAT UP SOME GUY HERE!"

Suddenly, a passerby strolling past them scolded, "Bad doggie! You're not supposed to pee in the mall."

Kiba twitched an eyebrow.

"Bad doggie! You're supposed to be trained," the owner said sternly.

Kiba wheeled around, leaped up, and snarled, "Why don't you keep your mouth shut! You wouldn't understand the needs of a dog!"

And with that, Kiba clasped his hands together into a hand seal and shouted out, "GIJYUU NINPOU: SHIKYAKU NO JUTSU!" (af-s: Four Legged Technique: The one that makes Kiba grow claws and move faster as a quadruped)

* * *

Neji stopped and turned around, obviously looking for something. Rock Lee and Tenten also stopped walking and turned to look at Neji. Tenten said, "What's wrong, Neji?"

Neji responded, "Hmm. It must be nothing, but I thought I heard someone shouting out 'jutsu'."

Tenten laughed and said, "No one would be dumb enough to perform a jutsu in public here."

* * *

"Shino, STOP IT!" exclaimed Kiba.

Shino had Kiba in a headlock, and the bug user was dragging him away from the terrified man, who was running away madly, his dog sprinting after its master.

Naruto shook his head, saying, "What a frickin' hypocrite."

"I'LL FRICKIN' SLASH YOU GUYS!" snarled Kiba, waving his claws, which were still sharpened by the Shikyaku no Jutsu.

Shino suddenly threw Kiba onto the floor with a powerful shove and the use of a leg to trip him backwards. He placed a foot on top of his chest and said, "Undo your jutsu now, before my bugs drain your chakra so fast you'll be lying on the floor unconscious."

Kiba whimpered like a dog (haha…a pun!) and withdrew his jutsu. Shino then seized the collar of his shirt and proceeded to drag him down the escalator and back to the front entrance, where everyone else was waiting.

Tsunade smiled at them and said, "Well, we're almost ready to head for Las Vegas. Now where is Jiraiya—"

Suddenly…

"PERVERT!"

"GET HIM!"

"THAT OLD GUY, WITH THE LONG GRAY HAIR!"

"PEEEEEEEEERRRRRRVEEERRRRRT!"

Tsunade sighed, saying, "I should have known…"

Jiraiya suddenly came running out of a store, gasping and panting. Sprinting past Tsunade and the twelve shinobi, he ran so fast that the sliding glass doors couldn't open fast enough. Crashing into the sliding glass doors, he collapsed onto his back, then got back up and sprinted out of the mall.

The Godaime and twelve shinobi turned back to see a mob of angry women yelling and running after him. Suddenly, the mob stopped and looked at the twelve shinobi and Tsunade.

The Hokage sweated furiously and said, "We're not affiliated with him!"

"Yeah RIGHT!"

"YEAH, HOW 'BOUT THAT ONE?"

"YEAH, THE GUY WITH THE LONG BLACK HAIR AND NO PUPILS!"

"HE WAS PEEPING, TOO!"

"THEY MUST ALL BE PERVERTS!"

"GET THEM AND THE OLD GUY!"

Tsunade and the twelve shinobi found themselves running for their lives. Tenten stared at Neji as she ran and said, "So this is what you were doing when you were taking an unusually long time to go the bathroom!"

Neji looked shocked and said, "I didn't peek! Maybe there was someone else who just looks like me!"

Tenten shouted, "Yeah right! They just described you with NO PUPILS!"

"I do have pupils! They're just white! And maybe Jiraiya just did a Henge to try to disguise himself!"

Tenten panted as she ran, "Do you have any evidence!"

Neji wheezed as he sprinted, "Well, if I was peeping, I would have used my Byakugan and wouldn't have been caught!"

Tenten looked at him skeptically, "I still think you're a pervert. The quiet ones usually are secretly perverted…"

Meanwhile, Naruto had caught up with Jiraiya and was yelling while he was hitting him over the head. "ERO-SENNIN! DO YOU REALLY HAVE TO PEEP WHILE WE'RE HERE!"

Jiraiya wheezed, "Less talking, and more running!"

And Kiba managed to yell while he was running, "GIJYUU NINPOU: SHIKYAKU NO JUTSU" and sprinted on all four legs at some crazy speed, surpassing both Naruto and Jiraiya, who were both at the front.

Lee shouted, "YOSH! This is a test for our youthfulness, to test our endurance and abilities to outrun a mob of crazy, ranting, outraged women! If I cannot complete, then I, aside from being torn apart and beaten to a pulp, will have to do 1000 push-ups, assuming that I survive! CHAUJI SHRCHANG!" (af-s: Haha, that's an inside joke)

And with his good-guy pose (adapted so that he could do this while running), his pingy teeth, and that weird flame in his eyes, he sprinted up to Naruto and Jiraiya.

Suddenly, Jiraiya pointed while running, "THERE'S OUR BUS!"

Everyone shouted, "WE'RE SAVED!"

The bus driver stared at the shinobi running, then widened his eyes at the mob of angry women following close behind. In all of five seconds, all of the shinobi had boarded the bus and yelled simultaneously, "HIT THE PEDAL!"

Of which, the bus driver did.

* * *

Got a question for you readers. Since these ninja folk are in America, US laws say that they must attend school. Should I push them into high school, with the rookie nine being freshmen and Gai's team being sophomores? If so, how much of the fanfic should take place in high school?

Go to this: http/groups. It's a funny picture that has to do with Kakashi and the airport, which of course ties in with this fanfic's theme.

After Vegas, I may need some ideas on anything that they may do outside of San Diego. I'd like them to take more trips, maybe around other cities in America. I have some ideas, but if you have any ideas, feel free to send them through a review!


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